But, of course, I couldn't toss them in the compost (which would have been the kind thing to do with them) so I set them outside in their little started peat pots where they languished for the longest time. Not growing really, just continuing to look pretty pathetic.
Finally I decided to give them a chance (hey, why not?) and stuck a few of them in bare spots in the field garden and four of them in one end of a raised bed where a cherry tomato plant had decided to die deader than a door nail on me.
Only thing is by the time I planted these little stunted plants in the garden, the labels in each of the pots had done washed clean away so that I don't know whether they are cabbages or broccoli or Brussels sprouts. No matter. If they grow, we'll soon know. And they actually had started to grow and put on some size.
This morning I saw that one of the plants in the raised bed had been chomped on by "something." Too much damage done to be an insect/bug type marauder. Papa Pea says he doesn't think a chipmunk or squirrel (my first guess) would bother the plant. My next thought was that a rabbit had gotten through the fencing around the garden, but I don't think a rabbit would chop off the leaves and just leave them lying about . . . some in the raised bed, some on the grass outside the bed.
I don't have much hope of catching the varmint, but I've got a trap set out just in case he/she/it decides to return to sample more broccoli. Or cabbage. Or Brussels sprouts. Or whatever the plants may be.
14 comments:
Bummer!
It's always a fight to get a garden to grow. If it's not the weather it's the bugs and if it's not the bugs it's the varmints. I hope whatever is chomping your leaves decides he doesn't like the taste and moves on to uncultivated food.
There's a darn varmint for every season, plant, and effort we put in. Good luck!! I hope you catch him and show him a good night's sleep--heh heh
LOL!
I'm curious to see what shows up in your trap!
Nancy po - Coulda been worse! (Glad it wasn't!)
Sparkless - With all the rain we've had this summer, the vegetation (outside the garden!) we have is so lush and heavy, I wouldn't think any critter would have to come into the garden to find something to eat!
Sue - No sign in or around the trap this morning. Ha! You're so right . . . for every season in the garden . . . !
J Yale - Not a thing this morning! But, yes, it sure would be interesting to know just what did the damage!
You know, we still have those teen raccoons here. I set the trap, and they knock it over to get in without setting it. I am going to re-set it and weigh it down with blocks so they cannot out-smart it. Hope you catch the critter.
Well, for cryin out loud! What do they say, what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger? You and Papa Pea must be Herculean by now! Hope you catch whatever varmint is chewing on your brassicas...
Kristina - Raccoons have been spotted up here but they're not plentiful . . . yet. I think if my varmint was a raccoon more damage would have been done, no?
Susan - The destructive bugger was back again last night and attacked another plant. Same as the first one . . . tore off the leaves but didn't take but a bite or two out of them. Some leaves had no bites in them. The trap didn't do its job. Rats. (No I don't think it's rats. That was just a G-rated expletive.)
We have ground hogs every year here. I went all Bill Murry from Caddyshack last year. We set up our trail cams to see what was getting our veggies. We caught 6 last year and just 2 this year.
We used the hav-a-hart traps like you, but because we have a fence around our garden, we were able to figure out where it was getting in and make a trap with the trap to make sure it would go in there.
I hope you get the bugger who is messing with your plants.
Heather Duncan - We've seen a woodchuck on the property, but can't find any place where something that big could have gotten through the fencing. Would a woodchuck go after a brassica plant? Guess I don't know enough about woodchucks!
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